READING PASSAGE 1 Strategy 1: Non-financial (material) incentives: Within

the established wage and salary system it was not

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 possible to use hospital funds to support this strategy.
which are based on Reading Passage I below. However, it was possible to secure incentives from local
ABSENTEEISM IN NURSING A LONGITUDINAL businesses including free passes to entertainment
STUDY parks, theatres, restaurants etc. At the end of each
roster period, the ward with the lowest absence rate
Absence from work is a costly and disruptive problem for would win the prize.
any organization. The cost of absenteeism in Australia
has been put at 1.8 million hours per day or $1400 Strategy 2: Flexible fair rostering: Where possible, staffs
million annually. The study reported here was conducted were given the opportunity to determine their working
in the Prince William Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, -schedule within the limits of clinical needs.
where, prior to this time, few active steps had been Strategy 3: Individual absenteeism and counseling.Each
taken to measure, understand or manage the month, managers would analyze the pattern of absence
occurrence of absenteeism. of staff with excessive sick leave (greater than ten days
Nursing Absenteeism per year for full-time employees). Characteristic patterns
of potential ‘voluntary absenteeism’ such as absence
A prevalent attitude amongst many nurses in the group before and after days off, excessive weekend and night
selected for study was that there was no reward or duty absence and multiple single days off were
recognition for not utilizing the paid sick leave communicated to all ward nurses and then, as
entitlement allowed them in their employment necessary, followed up by action.
conditions. Therefore, they believed they may as well
Results
take the days. Off - sick or otherwise. Similar attitudes
have been noted by James (1989), who noted that sick Absence rates for the six months prior to the incentive
leave is seen by many workers as a right, I like annual scheme ranged from 3.69 per cent to 4.32 per cent. In
holiday leave. the following six months they. Ranged between, 2.87
Miller and Norton (1986), in their survey of 865 nursing per cent and 3.96 per cent. This represents a 20 per
personnel, found that 73 per cent felt they should be cent improvement: However, analyzing the absence
rewarded for not taking- eave, because some rates on a year-to-year basis, the overall absence rate
employees always used their sick leave. Further, 67 per was 3.60 per cent in the first year and 3.43 per cent in
cent of nurses felt that administration was not the following year. This represents a 5 percent decrease
sympathetic to the problems shift work causes to from the first to the second year of the study. A
employees’ personal and social lives. Only 53 per cent significant decrease in absence over the two-year period
of the respondents felt that every effort was made to could not be demonstrated.
schedule staff fairly. In another longitudinal study of Discussion
nurses working in two Canadian hospitals, Hackett Bycio
and Guion (1989) examined the reasons why nurses The non-financial incentive scheme did appear to assist
took absence from work, The most frequent reason in controlling absenteeism in the short term. As the
stated for absence was minor illness to self Other scheme progressed it became harder to secure prizes
causes, in decreasing order of frequency, were illness it and this contributed to the program’s losing momentum
I family, family social function, work to do at home and and finally ceasing. There were mixed results across
bereavement. wards as well. For example, in wards with staff members
who had long-term genuine illness- there was little
Method chance of winning, an (ft some extent the staff on those
In an attempt to reduce the level of absenteeism wards were disempowered. Our experience would
suggest that the long-term effects of incentive awards on
amongst the 250 Registered an Enrolled Nurses in the
present study, the Prince William management absenteeism are questionable.
introduced three different, yet potentially
complementary, strategies over 18 months.
Over the time of the study, staffs were given a larger Although there has been some decrease in absence
degree of control in their rosters. This led to significant rates, no single strategy or combination of strategies has
improvements in communication between managers and had a significant impact on absenteeism per se.
staff. A similar effect was found from the implementation notwithstanding the disappointing results; it is our
of the third strategy. Many of the nurses had not realized contention that the strategies were not in vain. A shared
the impact their behaviour was having on the ownership of absenteeism and a collaborative approach
organization and their colleagues but there were also to problem solving has facilitated improved cooperation
staff members who felt that talking to them about their and communication between management and staff. It is
absenteeism was ‘picking’ on them and this usually had our belief that this improvement alone, while not tangibly
a negative effect on management-employee measurable, has increased the ability of management to
relationships. manage the effects of absenteeism more effectively
since this study.
Conclusion
Question 1 – 7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
Write down
YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO If this statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage
Each question counts two (2) marks.

1. The Prince William Hospital has been trying to reduce absenteeism amongst nurses for many years.

2. Nurses in the Prince William Hospital study believed that there were benefits in taking as little sick leave as
possible.

3. Just over half the nurses in the 1986 study believed that management understood the effects that shift work
had on them.

4. The Canadian study found that ‘illness in the family’ was a greater cause of absenteeism than ‘work to do at
home’.

5. In relation to management attitude to absenteeism the study at the Prince William Hospital found similar
results to the two 1989 studies.

6. The study at the Prince William Hospital aimed to find out the causes of absenteeism amongst 250 nurses.

7. The study at the Prince William Hospital involved changes in management practices.

Question 8 – 13

Complete the notes below. Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

In the first strategy, wards with the lowest absenteeism in different periods would win prizes donated by
..(8)... .In the second strategy, staff were given more control over their ...(9)... . In the third strategy,
nurses who appeared to be taking ... (10) ... sick leave or ...(11)... were identified and counseled.
Initially, there was a ...(12)... per cent decrease in absenteeism. The first strategy was considered
ineffective and stopped. The second and third strategies generally resulted in better ...(13).. among staff.